Packing and shipping heavy, large or awkward items can be challenging. There is a reason to do it though – good packaging means less damages to your products, fewer returns and happier customers.

When it comes to packaging heavy, large or awkward items, there is much to consider, including using stronger more protective packaging than for standard goods, since heavy items particularly are usually moved by forklift rather than people. Plus, they may switch between multiple trucks and trains as they navigate their way to their destinations.

The onus for suitable packaging rests with the shipper. If your packages are not packed in a way to avoid damage, sometimes inflicted by heavy warehouse equipment, a freight company may refuse to accept it, especially if they think won’t survive the crush of a hydraulic lift or the arms of a forklift.

When shipping packages, know they will take a beating, such as:

• Getting dropped
• Being subjected to vibration from conveyor belts and trucks
• Experiencing compression on all sides from indiscriminate stacking
• Undergoing temperature and humidity changes

7 Tips To Help You Package Parcels Better

Protecting your goods in transit is helped enormously by good, strong packaging. Here are 7 tips to help you:

1) Ship on a proper pallet. Some heavier, large or awkward items are best protected by securing them to a wooden or plastic heavy-duty pallet that is able to withstand the stress of being hauled and lifted. Don’t allow shipments to exceed the weight restrictions of their pallet, according to a Shopify blog called, “Shipping Problems? Get 10 Fixes to the Most Common Fulfilment Challenges“.

2) Choose Durable Packaging. Corrugated cartons are excellent since they are strong enough to withstand the weight of a full load of packages stacked on top of them. Avoid second-hand corrugated card packaging that has been weakened by previous use. Reinforce the packaging strength with water-activated tape. Consider adding extra padding for protection, such as bubble wrap. Add it along the bottom, sides and top of the shipment. Reinforce the bottom of the box with extra layers of tape.

3) Wrap and cushion the items. Always place items in the centre of the box so they don’t tilt when they are being carried. Surround them with a thick layer of bubble wrap for more product protection. Fill in any empty spaces inside the box. Crumpled newsprint or packing paper compresses during shipment, so it’s not suitable. Make sure nothing moves inside the shipment. The heavier the item, the more likely it will shift within its carton.

4) Add another box. Sometimes adding a box inside another box helps with protection. Slip the packed box into another box that is larger than the first and pad the empty space with bubble wrap or air pillows. Depending on the item, you want to leave at least two inches of clearance between the inner and outer boxes. Really fragile items like heavy vases will require more clearance. You may even consider wooden crates. Ultimately, ask yourself if your packaging provides adequate cushioning to protect the item in case it is dropped or punctured. If the answer is no, you need to add more protection.

5) Seal the box with water-activated tape. For heavier items, choose fiberglass reinforced water-activated tape for extra protection. Water-activated tape actually bonds to a corrugated shipping box, protecting it from opening during transport. Using tape that is not designed for packing probably won’t protect the box from opening during transit or may allow pilfering during the trip.

6) Avoid making boxes too heavy. If a shipment is heavy, and if it’s possible, consider breaking it into multiple boxes and wrapping individual components separately. The heavier the carton, the more likely it will break in transit and be a greater OSH risk to people lifting it.

7) Give it a shake. Once your package is sealed, shake it. Can you hear anything rattling around or moving? If yes, you need to repack it. Anything that moves might damage other fragile items and crush packaging material.

As heavy, large or awkward items move through the supply chain, they are prone to damage. By spending extra time and effort to properly package them, they will be better able to withstand the vagaries of fork lifts, conveyor belts, transfers between multiple trucks and the challenges of over-the-road transit. That means fewer damaged goods and returns and, in the end, customers who more likely to purchase from you again.

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

It’s a very common story. New eCommerce business owners start out using the spare bedroom to run their fledgling enterprises. Before long, there are too many orders, too much packaging and product, too many trips to the Post Office, for it to be operationally viable. In fact, in our experience, the more time spent trying to manage your own order fulfilment, the less time spent on marketing your business.

This growth provides the catalyst to ask yourself a key question – is my time best spent packing products into boxes or is it better spent growing my orders? Once entrepreneurs reach this point, it’s time to talk to us. If you’re doing 50 or more orders a week, give us a call on 1300 337 100.

Why outsource order fulfilment?

There are many benefits to outsourcing order fulfilment, including the reason implied above – that your time is best spent growing your orders – than packing packages. By engaging Direct Mail, a third party logistics service provider (3PL), you move out of the day-to-day operational trenches to focus on strategic initiatives. But there are other benefits too.

Imagine hiring (then firing) staff to deal with peaks and troughs in demand. Black Friday sales, Christmas and Boxing Day, seasonal fluctuations… If you could avoid the hiring of people, why wouldn’t you do it? Direct Mail Corporation already hires a scalable workforce to manage fluctuating demands. These costs are amortised across all our clients leading to a better deal for you. It’s not just the hassle of hiring either, it’s the costs associated with staff. Bigger premises, more computers, additional wages and leave entitlements – we could go on, you get the idea.

Operationally, there are warehousing costs, which can be major capital costs. 3PL service providers like Direct Mail Corporation already incur these costs on behalf of clients. Our secure warehousing facilities are managed with state-of-the-art warehouse management system software. Processes are automated and we constantly look for efficiencies to reduce costs, allowing us to offer our clients competitive rates.

Finally, there are the costs associated with freight and carrier networks. A 3PL service like Direct Mail can negotiate rates based on large volumes, preferential rates we can then pass onto our customers, saving them even more money.

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

We all know about the benefits that Chatbot technology brings to a website. With a chatbot, you can offer 24/7 responsiveness to visitors and the chatbot stats speak for themselves:

• • Chatbots can cut operational costs by up to 30%.
  • 85% of customer interaction will be handled without human agents by 2021.
  • 50% of businesses plan to spend more on chatbots than on mobile apps.
  • 64% of internet users say 24-hour service is the best feature of chatbots.
  • 37% of people use a customer service bot to get a quick answer in an emergency.
  • There were over 300,000 chatbots on Facebook in 2018.

But, we’ve all been left frustrated by clunky chat bots that don’t answer questions accurately. Worse, some chat bots are so badly programmed that they tell you something completely different to what you want to know or they repeat the same question over and over. If you have a chat bot on your website, you might be losing customers because of a poor chat bot experience, so imagine our delight when we discovered “warm welcome”.

Business is best when it’s personal. We think it’s time to replace your boring chatbot with a video bubble to improve personal customer communication and enhance your lead generation, too.

We love the personal touch it delivers plus the sneaky way it makes your website seem human! Check it out at www.warmwelcome.com

Need more convincing? Check out this video we found on YouTube:

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

Whether you love it or hate it, TikTok is increasingly hard to ignore. After a record-smashing 2021, the app (and its audiences) are bigger than ever. What started as a Gen Z dance challenge platform, it’s morphed to encompass every kind of content and community. Following the launch of in-app shopping in 2021, it’s become even more essential to brands looking to connect directly with customers.

As you’ll see, TikTok’s user base is on an upward slope. One chief reason for this growth is its efficacy in building a sense of community among users. Through TikTok, users and creators share content in the form of business updates, entertaining skits, and snippets of daily life that bring people together.

The Stats – It’s Too Big To Ignore.

Check out these snapshots from January 2022:

• TikTok was the most downloaded app of 2021, with 656 million downloads. (That’s over 100 million downloads more than the runner-up, Instagram, which was downloaded 545 million times last year. Plus, it’s the third year in a row that Tik Tok has come out in front.)
• TikTok has been downloaded more than 3 billion times. (It’s also the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 billion downloads.)
• TikTok is the 6th most-used social platform in the world behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and WeChat. Since 2021, it has surpassed Facebook Messenger to move into 6th place.
• US adults have mixed opinions on TikTok, in the US, 34% of adults hold unfavourable opinions of the app, compared to 37% who have favourable views.
• TikTok has over one billion monthly active users. Eight new users join TikTok every second, with an average of 650,000 new users joining daily.
• TikTok users are active on other social media platforms. 99.9% of TikTok users report that they’re using other platforms including Facebook (84.6% overlap), Instagram (83.9% overlap), and YouTube (80.5% overlap)
• TikTok has now surpassed Instagram for popularity among Gen Z users (born between 1997 and 2012) in the United States, with 37.3 million to Instagram’s 33.3 million.
• Worldwide, TikTok’s user base is 57% female. That figure rises to 61% for TikTok users in the US.

(See more statistics at Hootsuite).

3 TikTok Marketing Strategies.

Marketing Objectives:
TikTok marketing can help businesses:

• Increase brand awareness
• Build engaged communities
• Sell products and services
• Get feedback from customers and audiences
• Provide customer service
• Advertise products and services to target audiences

TikTok influencer marketing

Start by getting familiar with TikTok, it is an entirely different social network from Facebook or Instagram with unique trends, features, and user behaviours. Be willing to experiment to find out what works best.

TikTok influencer marketing is a big part of the app’s ecosystem. Mega-stars like Charli D’Amelio, Addison Rae, and Zach King can make a huge impact on the success of a business (tens of millions of users watch their content every day). But you don’t need a high-profile influencer for successful marketing—try to discover rising stars, or influencers in your niche. To find a rising star, search the hashtag (for example) #melbourne(+ your product) and you might find local influencers on the rise.

Creating your own TikToks
This option gives you the most freedom. Create a Business TikTok account for your brand and start making your own organic content. The sky is truly the limit here—you can post everything from showing off your products to day-in-the-life videos to dance challenges. Spend some time scrolling through your For You page for inspiration.

TikTok advertising
If you’re looking for a place to start and have some money to invest, this is it—TikTok’s site is full of success stories from brands that started advertising on TikTok, including Aerie, Little Caesars and Maybelline. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, the cost of TikTok ads is based on a bidding model. You can take a deep dive into learning about TikTok advertising here.

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

When it comes to keeping pace with eCommerce, change is indeed the only constant. Since the pandemic, buyer behaviour has changed notably across the globe. We’re seeing an increased demand for sustainable yet affordable products, emerging payment options, new tech solutions amongst other trends. If you’re an eCommerce entrepreneur, keeping ahead of the trends opens up all kinds of  opportunities for success.

In 2022, we think you should plan for these trends.

1. The potency of omni-channel approaches.

The pandemic was a catalyst for pushing major retailers to move online. Offering convenience and accessibility, the growth in online shopping has created tremendous pressure for merchants to integrate retail experiences online and offline to maintain profitability. Notable fashion retailers, for example, that have implemented omnichannel strategies include Zara by opening a click-and-collect concept store. To provide an omnichannel shopping experience, Zara used a virtual styling tool, which enabled customers to scan barcodes of items and mix and match garments and accessories while looking in the mirror.

Nike is one of the biggest fashion eCommerce brands to witness success with direct-to-consumer (DTC) implementation. Nike’s direct online sales have outpaced all other marketing channels and are considered key to ensuring the company’s financial future moving forward.

Closer to home, and as a direct result of the pandemic, more than 70% of Australian retailers planned to move their business online. (Source: Australian Retail Outlook Report, 2021.) Major retailers such as Woolworths, Coles and Kmart have already begun their omnichannel journey and, while omnichannel is in its relative infancy in Australia, we think it’s a key emerging trend to watch.

2. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve customer service.

Still on fashion, Australia’s leading eCommerce category, buyers globally are looking for personalisation and relevancy – and we’re seeing the use of AI, especially AI chatbots, to deliver this function increasing adopted by notable fashion houses, such as Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger and Levi’s. Recent research by Hubspot shows that almost 50% of consumers prefer to connect with a company through live chat than through other means of contact. Reinforcing this, another study by  Ubisend, found 35% of consumers would be happy if more companies used chatbots.

Whether creating recommendations via a conversational service or just greeting visitors on a social or web page, AI can be efficient and effective for engaging potential consumers 24/7 and we think it’s a key trend to watch over the year(s) ahead.

3. Offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment options.

We’ve all heard of Afterpay, right? Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a new form of purchasing payment showing tremendous growth. It is embedded into a wide range of eCommerce retailers, both small and big. Services such as Afterpay allow a shopper to buy and receive the product upfront while making the payment over several weeks or months.

According to research reports, up to 65% of shoppers prefer not to use credit cards for retail purchases. eCommerce brands that allow instalment payments lower the obstacles for the customers in making a purchase, especially those who are price-conscious and turn away due to high-priced items. This expands your audience and attracts customers who earlier were unable to buy from the brands they admired. Shopify believes its merchants will implement payment methods with instalments, including split payment and micro-payment options soon. Making your products easier for consumers to buy is a key consideration for all eCommerce stores, which is why we think BNPL is a key trend you should watch.

 

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

BigCommerce released its latest ANZ State of Ecommerce Report, so local eCommerce entrepreneurs can get insight into consumer shopping behaviours that help them better meet customer expectations, improve online shopping experiences and stay ahead of competitors.

“The beginning of the pandemic pushed shoppers online, and now they’re getting more selective with their spending to prioritize saving more. We’re at a point where retailers and merchants need to take an introspective look at their key services to address shopper pain points like website speed and fast delivery times.”

Shannon Ingrey, vice president & general manager, APAC at BigCommerce
The new report, which surveyed over 5,690 Australian and New Zealand shoppers, reveals debit cards have risen in popularity, while the use of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) providers has remained consistent.

Some shoppers have indicated plans to decrease their future BNPL usage to save more for essentials, while other shoppers continue to prioritize website speed and fast delivery times in their online shopping experience.
Key Insights from BigCommerce ANZ State of eCommerce Report

• Credit card as a proportion of last payments made has risen to 39% in 2022, up from 26% in 2020 and 2021. Debit cards have also become more popular as a payment method, increasing from 17% in 2020, to 21% in 2021 and now at 23% in 2022.
• Thirty percent of respondents also indicate they plan to decrease their BNPL spend, with the majority doing so to save money for essentials (68%).
• In 2022, the majority of online shoppers (~ 79%) would be likely or very likely to leave a website and purchase elsewhere if a website is too slow.
• Ninety-five percent of shoppers indicated free delivery would encourage them to shop with a brand again, while 92% listed expensive shipping as the main deterrent to prevent future purchases.
• The majority of purchases made after receiving a marketing prompt came from email (42.1%), while respondents who made a purchase after receiving an abandoned cart email have also doubled to 32% in 2022.
• Thirty-four percent of respondents indicated they would abandon their purchase if they did not trust the website’s security.

Download the full (free) report here: BigCommerce ANZ State of eCommerce Report, 2022 or view last years report here: BigCommerce ANZ State of eCommerce Report, 2021

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

Facebook is a popular platform for advertising for many of our eCommerce clients, especially those with visual products, like skincare or apparel. Using Facebook, retailers can micro-target their audiences, access detailed analytics, and you can create ads that cater to a specific objective, such as traffic or conversion. Like Google, you can remarket to people who have already interacted with your store, but not completed a purchase. Facebook’s recent data shows about 16 million Australians are actively using the platform (2021 figures).
 

Use it to spy on competitors.

Stuck for messaging? Want to see what competitors are doing? That’s easy. All you need to do is visit the Facebook Ads Library.

Choose your location, all ads, and search for your industry or competitors.
 

 

Use it to build brand reputation.

Facebook page likes are important, not for vanity reasons, but because they provide social proof that you are a legitimate eCommerce business. The more likes you have, the greater the trust a new buyer has in purchasing from your online store.

To see how you compare to competitors, try out the Agora Pulse Barometer tool. (It’s free!)
 

Use it to sell your products.

Obviously, a main reason for eCommerce retailers to use Facebook is to sell their products. Unlike Google, Facebook is not an intent-based purchasing platform. With Google, if you want to buy pink shoes, you’ll enter that search phrase into the engine. With Facebook, you see an ad, you like the product, you click the ad to get to the store, but you haven’t set out to buy it deliberately.

Rather than rehash an entire Facebook set-up, we’ll share six of our tips:

1. A cheap and effective way to get traction is to use video to drive awareness then remarket to the viewing audience using an ad. (Set up your audience to include the first 3 seconds of video viewing.)
2. When you’re setting up Facebook audiences, make sure to exclude your competitors. (Try searching for job titles for this purpose.)
3. Often, with products, success hinges on your offer. Make sure to add urgency (Buy it now, limited stock, 24-hour sale, as examples).
4. Make visuals bold to lift on a screen and clean. Images are persuasive and deliver information quickly. Product images should show isolated product on a white background, so the product is the hero. Never use poor quality images in ads. You can get away with it in your eCommerce store if you’re featuring user-submitted images on your website. Some research suggests that images featuring people work best. Others think that products sell better when advertised in a person’s right hand. Stuck for pictures? You can get free images at freepik.com, unsplash.com and pexels.com
5. Copy is key. Keep it short and conversational. Remember, it’s not an intent-based sale, so keep it social and conversational. Stick with your existing brand tone and don’t forget to include your call to action. See below for a couple of examples we like.
6. Convert skeptics to buyers through proof that your product delivers the promised results. Page Likes, online reviews and other social proof will support conversion.

 
Here is some ad copy we like:

 
Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our 3PL team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

The first step in an effective eCommerce messaging is easy to say but not always easy to do – sell something worth buying. While this has traditionally been the job of the manufacturer or product designer, it also falls to the eCommerce marketer to do.

What makes something worth buying in the first place? To understand the answer to this, we have to understand the real reasons that people buy.

Let’s use an example of a drill with a small bit. As Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously pointed out, nobody buys a drill but for its own sake, they want the hole it makes.

But no-one wants a hole for its own sake, either. A hole is a means to accomplish something else, like mounting a shelf on a wall. The shelf is just a way of storing things, which, in turn, is just a way to make your home look tidy.

Why do you want tidiness? Perhaps because you’ll feel you’re in control of your environment. Or maybe you think it adds aesthetic value that will impress your visitors. Maybe both.

In other words, you don’t really want a drill bit. You want safety and respect, both of which are fundamental human needs. The drill it is just a tool for fulfilling them.

Effective messaging begins with identifying people’s underlying needs and desires. These almost always boil down to deep-seated, emotionally-resonant aspirations, such as adventure, belonging, connection, freedom, strength and tranquility.

A product is worth buying if it provides a compelling answer to one of these aspirations. Effective eCommerce messaging therefore might begin with design and manufacture, but the eCommerce marketer must create the messaging that speaks to the compelling, deliverable promises of fulfilment.

Looking for extra reading? We recommend Seth Godin, This is Marketing

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

Imagine you’ve got an idea for a product and you’re just starting out.

Here’s the thing with developing new products, you’re expected to be wrong a fairly significant number of times. Because of this, you’ll hear people say the rule in product development is speed to market. Launch something as fast as possible, test it on buyers, change it (iterate) and, through this trial-and-error process, you’ll eventually develop something that people really want. This basic thinking doesn’t just apply to software development (although it’s common there), product managers apply the same principles to developing skincare, food products and even apparel.

In today’s post, we want to share our thoughts on how you can build an online community who are willing to evangelise your brand, which includes testing demand for a product plus giving you honest product feedback so you can keep improving.

Just to be clear, a database of email subscribers and phone numbers is not a community. It’s very useful for lead generation, but a true community is a 3-way interaction between the brand, audience and each other, which leaves forums and groups as the easiest way to build your community.

Here are four practical steps to take:

1. Where is your audience? In consumers, often they are on Facebook or Instagram (and Facebook is a very easy place to start). Set up a Facebook group and invite your subscribers to join it. B2B brands might consider setting up forums or having a presence on significant forums.
2. Focus on non-transactional content. Write regularly and don’t try to sell, in other words, behind-the-scenes and other non-sales related content works best. You’ll quickly learn what content your group engages with, so run more of it. Keep it authentic to your brand story. If you are in skincare, talk about different products for different problems, or get your followers talking about it. In food products, showcase group member recipes or cooking tips. In apparel enable customers to show photos of themselves or share their tips about what accessories to add to create a look. Encourage product memes. Show pictures or videos of the founders doing things. It makes the content interesting and keeps it real and transactional.
3. Monitor your group and interact. Tag people in comments, talk one-on-one, understand their interests and preferences, even match them up with others of a similar persuasion.
4. Through your community, you can conduct user interviews and talk with your customers to get feedback on product ideas and improvements. You can use polls as a tool to get quantitative feedback… for example, “hey, we’re curious, what do you think about this idea/packaging/recipe/colour?” Use your community feedback to influence your product. When customers see that their voices matter and have real influence, they are much more likely to willingly share their opinions.

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.

Right now, says global researcher Ibisworld, Australia’s annual online perfume and cosmetic market value is valued at $2bn (2021) and is expected to grow by a further 9.6% during 2022. This is no surprise to us, in our experience, this is a popular category that uses 3PL extensively.

In this blog post, we’re showcasing strategies that three successful ecommerce beauty brands have used to grow their online order conversion. If you’re going to learn about beauty ecommerce, we figure it should be from the best, right?

 

1. Influencer strategy.

A great example of a business using an influencer strategy is homegrown retailer, Hismile, the home tooth-whitening kit retailer started in 2014 by two young Aussie entrepreneurs. Due to early budget constraints, the young founders decided to rely on social media because it was free. They started by using micro-influencers in Australia (working with up to 2,000 brand ambassadors at any point in time). Fast forward to today, they are a dominant brand and have the marketing budgets to afford Kylie Jenner and Conor McGregor.

(Read more: https://www.adnews.com.au/how-hismile-built-million-dollar-empire)

 

2. Make it easy for customers to buy.

Ilia Beauty was founded on the concept of “clean makeup”, in other words, makeup that incorporates naturals, organics and safe synthetics. It has focused on building a strong brand reputation in its niche and boasts famous fans such as our own Miranda Kerr. Since almost 50% of its sales are online direct-to-consumer (the rest being department stores like Sephora and Nordstrom), Ilia has made a concerted effort to make products super-easy to buy online. We love the “shade finder” deployed by Ilia Beauty, which helps people to choose the right products for the skin tone. We also love the free giveaway if you spend more than $125 with the retailer.

(Read more: https://www.mecca.com.au/the-mecca-memo/the-in-tray/sasha-plavsic-interview.html)

 

3. Establish credentials upfront and reward loyalty.

100% Pure is a natural and organic cosmetics retailer, too. It has stores in the US and accepts orders globally via its website. We love how this brand showcases its product reviews upfront, since this quickly establishes social proof and enables new customers to have confidence in the products that they are purchasing. Plus, this retailer offers a loyalty program that includes a points-based system based on customer spend. In a step to make the brand footprint bigger, professional makeup artists can join a “trade” program for a 35% discount on many products.

(Read more: https://shoelace.com/blog/100-percent-pure-case-study/)

Ready to take your eCommerce store to the next level? Get in touch with our team for a custom quote to handle your online order fulfilment and logistics.